The day after the declaration in Lausanne, Hassan Rouhani’s Instagram feed displayed a short video of him repeating a line from his presidential campaign. “It’s lovely for centrifuges to spin, provided the wheels of the country are also spinning,” he says with a mischievous smile. In other words, as the Americans say, “It’s about the economy, stupid.” The economy and so much more.

For many Iranians who came out onto the streets of Tehran to celebrate, the issue is not so much the number of centrifuges or the levels of uranium enrichment; it is about being reconnected to the world. For many, the economic benefits that will follow the end of the sanctions are not yet clearly defined, and yet they are thrilled. After all, Iranians have been under some form of sanctions for nearly 30 years.

Lausanne heralds a transition towards a time when isolation and belligerence are no longer the lingua franca of the country. For so many Iranians it is gratifying to be seen in a new light, the embodiment of which is the smiling, erudite and supremely polite foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the diplomat who can rationally negotiate for national interests, backed by a president who wishes to end enmity with the world. This is closer to the image Iranians have of themselves: a civilised people proud of their politesse.

But more profoundly, for those Iranians who decided to vote in the last presidential elections, it is a vindication of their choice to leave the bloodied streets of Tehran after the disputed 2009 election and instead occupy the ballot boxes in 2012. It is their prize for maintaining their faith in the limited power of their vote. Doubly so, as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s guarded but continued support for the negotiators may be read as tacit approval for a departure from the previous presidency’s militancy. The last election, even in its limited choice of a selection, has proved useful as an opinion poll swaying the leader towards the wishes of the populace, especially those of Iran’s highly educated and aspiring youth. The Iranian electorate in the past two decades has demonstrated increasing political maturity; maybe this pragmatic wisdom is seeping upwards.

But even as we celebrate this tentative victory, we are aware of the many obstacles that may arise over the next three months before a final agreement is made. The US congress may seem miles away from the hardliners in the Iranian Majlis, but they appear to be of the same school of thought when it comes to any change in Iran-US relations. In their shrill objections to the outlines of a possible agreement, Iran’s extreme hardliners, who thrive on their intransigent posturing against Israel, sound like an echo of their archenemy, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The ground is shifting though. Many lines are being re-drawn as Zarif sets aside his signature smile to firmly quash the attacks from his fractious colleagues in the Majlis while President Obama coolly reasons Natanyahu’s demands away.

For the rest of Iranians, who have born the brunt of their country’s isolation in the past three decades, this is another chance at the incremental push towards change. Settling the nuclear issue, which was promoted by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the central policy affecting our lives, will finally allow Rouhani and his administration to focus on internal matters important to Iranians’ daily lives and their longer term aspirations.

Some who are against the regime feel that the success of the coming agreement with the six world powers will only strengthen and extend the rule of the clergy in Iran. Sound as these concerns may be, they are not a top priority for the average Iranian.

I recently heard a Harvard-educated friend say, “Iranians, over centuries, have opted for security over freedom.” Is that altogether a bad thing in a region going up in fire? Maybe as a nation who can trace its history back millennia, and not just centuries or decades, Iranians instinctively realise that freedom can only be achieved in times of security.

The next phase is the Majlis elections in February 2016, when a morally bolstered electorate has the chance to vote out the hardliners. If the declaration survives the three-month incubation period to emerge as a viable agreement for all sides, Iranians will get a chance to complete their efforts to restart the wheel of reforms spinning once again.

As any fool knows, reforms can only flourish when the economy is spinning.